Posts by Jason Kemp
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The price difference between a Prius and a comparable car is still too great to make much sense - without some kind of subsidy. I found some local calculations at the link below.
On my calculations I figure for the roughly $10k difference you could buy a lot more petrol or even a couple of Vespas?
To do the calculations properly you need to look at payments over 3-5 years and factor in fuel savings and price rises over that time. It may be for some people who commute larger distances that the payback from a hybrid would make sense.
LPG also looks good on that basis.
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Andrew Fagan should be next!
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oops I meant to say Toby - not Tony.
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Networking by its very action amplifies very small signals into lots of noise.
Media and anyone else trying to pick the signal should know this but maybe it didn't suit the story they were pushing at the time.
Ironically Tony the reporter may now get more readers watching to see what he comes up with next rather that looking at his next story.
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I think the US is still hoping to get some access to Oil from Iraq. The strategis value is worth trillions.
I did see something that suggested they screwed up the invasion so that they have to stay for 50 years or more. They can't rely on Saudi Arabia and a base in Iraq is what they need for going into Iran.
I don't like any of these ideas but clearly some in the US see it this way.
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This PDF printable chart on energy flows in NZ based on 2005 use is a good summary of the overall energy situation in New Zealand.
It is an overal energy use chart and shows all the sources and end uses in PetaJoules (PJ) It also shows 178 PJ (very significant amount) of electricity conversion use lost as well as losses from other processes.
Consequently there is another argument in energy circles that increasing the efficiency of energy generation for electricity is also something we need to do fairly urgently.
Greenpeace also have a video on experiences in the Netherlands and Denmark where combined heat and power plants (mostly conventional based) and decentralised systems closer to population centres appear to get much higher efficiencies in production.
The net benefit is to be able to use more "available" energy. In other words there are still carbon emissions but less of the energy is lost - reducing the need to setup more plants in the short term.
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Garth has moved to Rotorua has promises to resume transmission soon.
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Maybe the nuke power supporters could all band together, form a town, and have the generator there? That is, if they're comfortable with that....
Some people are
I think perhaps the The New Zealand Atomic Energy Advocacy Council NZAEC
might want to have one in Napier ? -
Roy Hemmingways reasons have already been linked to indirectly via the Greens by Russell. To recap he had 4 which are very similar
The first problem is size. (NZ total needs 4500MW - typical Nuclear plant is 1200)
Secondly, a nuclear plant runs flat out, it does not follow load up or down.
Thirdly, from a cost standpoint, nuclear plants produce power about twice as expensively as the plants that have been built in New Zealand recently.
And finally, nuclear really requires a whole industry to go along with it .On the size issue the standard answer is to build twin plants - say 2 x 1000 MW units side by side as they do in China now. Still not an option.
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And uranium
presume you mean supplies of the raw materials running down
"The analysis of data on uranium resources leads to the assessment that discovered reserves are not sufficient to guarantee the uranium supply for more than thirty years".
Need is to discover some more / whihc is unlikely.